Pages

Dec 29, 2016

Best electronic albums of 2016: ten

10 – patten – Ψ (Warp Records)

Welcome to my top 10 electronic albums of 2016. Yay, we made it!

My Autechre radar first went off around patten two years ago when their last album ESTOILE NAIANT turned heads. On Ψ (psi), they’ve tightened up everything. Now it sounds like early Autechre made for the dang dancefloor. Well. Maybe the basement below the dancefloor.

Hark: the stark percussion of Sonne; the footwork claustrophobia of Blade or Epsilon; the ambient chords washing underneath Used to b, the broken melancholia of Cache, with its Nintendo bleeps trying to break through the track.

This is a refreshed patten, boosted no end by the monotone mutterings of new member A. Yep, they comprise two lettered people: he's called D, she's called A. With her vocals never far away and yet as distant as Alpha Centauri, this cold techno sounds strangely warm. Their live visuals are reportedly breaking new ground: there's evidence here that their audio is too.